My daughter and I are making vinaterta using your recipe at http://etherwork.net/recipes/vineterte.html This is the first time we have done it, because in past years my mother has done it. This year, we are trying to get her to do less, so we convinced her we needed to learn.

I am not a baker, so I had a moment's consternation when all we could find was "berry sugar" (and no "fruit sugar"). My daughter pointed out that the berry sugar was "extra fine" so we got that.

We also wondered what "cooking liquid" was - of course this was explained later in the instructions, but I briefly contemplated whether to ask a shop person if they had any "cooking liquid." (yes, I know you will be guffawing.)

I had never seen molten lava, but fortunately my daughter has, so we were able to see that the long slow bubble-burst process must be what you meant. We are still not sure whether we cooked the filling quite long enough. I guess we will see later!

My daughter is now going out to get 9" round cake tins, since I was quite confident the layers would be too thick with 7 1/5 to 8 inch pans.

We did add the vanilla - I was very careful to do so. However, I made the mistake of adding it to the stuff while it was becoming molten lava, and I will just hope this won't ruin the recipe!

In the absence of an available coffee grinder I used a mortar and pestle to grind up the cardamon seeds for the layers.

Thanks for all the recipes on line with excellent explanations, warnings and stories. I love the story of the little girl "delicately" covering her stuffed "little" mouth with vinaterte!

I am being beckoned to inspect the 9" cake pans which have now arrived!

A bit later: we are now baking the second two rounds of cake. The first two seem to have emerged okay -- likely golden around the edges as instructed. We are getting quite excited, and are now planning ahead to figure out what we have in the house by which to wrap and store....

Eureka! An old round cookie tin that seems to be perfect in diameter! But will it be tall enough?!

A bit later: The vinaterta has been assembled, wrapped up and in a cookie tin in our cool basement to cure for 4 weeks. It seems to have turned out perfectly so far! We will see how it tastes in a few weeks.

_________________Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody. --Samuel Pepys

Last edited by CAM on Sun 16 Nov, 2008 7:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

How thrilling!! Congratulations on what sounds like a total success!! (And a good reminder for me to start thinking about making our cake for this Christmas.) It's my guess that nothing bad will happen from the vanilla being added too early. We have completely forgotten to add the vanilla until putting two of the layers together. The cake has still seemed to turn out just fine.

CAM wrote:

I had a moment's consternation when all we could find was "berry sugar" (and no "fruit sugar"). My daughter pointed out that the berry sugar was "extra fine" so we got that.

I suppose that I should probably add a note to the recipe that the sugar might be called "berry sugar". I'm not sure how important it is that the sugar be really fine though. As I recall, we have had to resort to using regular sugar when someone (who shall remain nameless but whose name begins with "E") forgot to make sure there was enough fruit sugar in the house. (Or was it that someone else used the fruit sugar on his breakfast cereal, thinking that he was being good to tidy up the cupboard and use up that box of sugar that was taking up extra room?)

CAM wrote:

I had never seen molten lava, but fortunately my daughter has, so we were able to see that the long slow bubble-burst process must be what you meant.

Actually, I've never seen molten lava either. The closest I've seen is the molten metal (which probably wasn't molten metal at all) in the Charles Laughton version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and that is what I always think of as I watch the the prunes slowly bubbling. In fact, I think I have been known to squint up one eye, stick my tongue into my bottom lip and chant "Molden medal molden medal" as I watch the prune mixture bubbling.

But frankly, this aspect of whether the prunes have cooked enough has always been slightly problematic. Each year, we stare at the gently bubbling mass and worriedly ask, "Do you think it's ready? Or should we cook it a little longer?"

CAM wrote:

Eureka! An old round cookie tin that seems to be perfect in diameter!

This is exactly what we use to store our vinarterta. It's perfect, isn't it?

I'm glad the instructions were, for the most part, clear. I do hope your cake turns out well and is just the sort of cake that someone will need to stuff into her mouth and garble out ecstatically, "I love this cake...."

_________________So... have YOU backed up your files lately? And defragged too!?

...vinaterta using your recipe at http://etherwork.net/recipes/vineterte.html This is the first time we have done it ...The vinaterta has been assembled, wrapped up and in a cookie tin in our cool basement to cure for 4 weeks. It seems to have turned out perfectly so far! We will see how it tastes in a few weeks.

Well, it's now four weeks later. (already?!) Shall we take it out and check it? Is one supposed to test it? Then should we put it into the freezer?

_________________Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody. --Samuel Pepys

I'd take a look at it to make sure it isn't getting furry. Smell it to make sure it smells right. And if you're skillful, you could shave off a little to taste it... and then make a judgement about whether it needs to be frozen.

_________________So... have YOU backed up your files lately? And defragged too!?

I'd take a look at it to make sure it isn't getting furry. Smell it to make sure it smells right. And if you're skillful, you could shave off a little to taste it... and then make a judgement about whether it needs to be frozen.

I have taken your advice. Looks and smells lovely! I will convene a short meeting with my daughter to opine as to taste.

Report: Delicious. We discreetly limited ourselves to a small taste.

_________________Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody. --Samuel Pepys